Bosch or Dewalt SDS

[Anthony Deakin]

Hi all, can anyone recommend a good cordless sds. Budget is £200

Thank you

 

[telectrix]

Hitachi for that budget. Milwaulkee if you get a decent bonus next week.

 

[LukeD]

Here is the JOKER : Friend bought a Erbeaur SDS cordless to do a job .He is a gardener and needed to drill some posts etc . He has had it a year and it is Faultless .I told him to buy good bits and pilot etc. And he loves it .

 

[MJPD29]

Here is the JOKER : Friend bought a Erbeaur SDS cordless to do a job .He is a gardener and needed to drill some posts etc . He has had it a year and it is Faultless .I told him to buy good bits and pilot etc. And he loves it .

I have some erbauer gear I bought to abuse and if it broke I wasn't too worried. It's been absolutely brilliant the 4 inch grinder has been used and abused and still going strong.

 

[MJPD29]

To answer your original question, bosch over dewalt for me, milwaukee over both.

 

[Mikegh]

Hitachi for that budget. Milwaulkee if you get a decent bonus next week.

Haven't heard much about Hitachi for a while , are they good ?

I assumed Milwaukee would be out of price range ?

I have a bosch 18v SDS, great drill but i won't use it for anything except small rawlplugs , perfect for that

 

[LukeD]

Haven't heard much about Hitachi for a while , are they good ?

I assumed Milwaukee would be out of price range ?

I have a bosch 18v SDS, great drill but i won't use it for anything except small rawlplugs , perfect for that

Hitachi is now some other name .I think as a bit of a old man .They and Panasonic dropped the ball years ago. They use to be the very best .But they did not produce ranges .And once it all went cordless that was them sunk. I have a old Hitachi Precision drill and i doubt any other brand would be better . My latest spend is a second fix RYOBI (Milwaulkee made??) Nail gun . And I am seriously liking it .The batteries are not cheap for a very very good reason . They plough on for ever

 

[nicebutdim]

Hitachi is now Hikoki.

The current range of cordless tools seem to generate favourable opinions, but pricing (at least in the UK) is generally sky high.

 

[DefyG]

I have a bosch 18v SDS, great drill but i won't use it for anything except small rawlplugs

Blimey, bit of an overkill for small rawlplugs........

 

[MJPD29]

Haven't heard much about Hitachi for a while , are they good ?

I assumed Milwaukee would be out of price range ?

I have a bosch 18v SDS, great drill but i won't use it for anything except small rawlplugs , perfect for that

That's what the 12v milwaukee sds is for. I'd be putting my 18v to more work than that

 

[Mikegh]

That's what the 12v milwaukee sds is for. I'd be putting my 18v to more work than that

What type of work

I have the 110 hilti and the Bosch rotary hammer for bigger work

 

[Gavin John Hyde]

I used to have a right mix of tools. All dewalt now. I was using battery converters eg dewalt battery in makita tool's. Efixx were late to the party on these.

 

[Mikegh]

Have you got the 54v DeWalt SDS

Will probably get one but wondering bout the weight of it

 

[DefyG]

With reference to your post#6 will that be for the larger 'Brown' rawlplugs???

 

[Mikegh]

With reference to your post#6 will that be for the larger 'Brown' rawlplugs???

I've got 5.5 up to about 14 mm SDS I think I the box but have only use the 5.5
I assumed it was just a fixings drill

I've got a 18v impact which I'm gonna try on the impact rated wood bits, haven't found s.lot of use for it

Other than that I've a couple of good 110v drills /hammers

 

[Electrics]

My personal opinion:

I used to be full Makita but the quality nowadays is absolute garbage and i'd never use them again. Batteries are crap, build quality sucks.

I had a bunch of blue Bosch 110v stuff and that was meh.

Tried Ryobi and they are like toy town tools, absolute garbage.

Once i'd had enough of crap tools i watched a load of tool reviews online and for battery stuff, DeWalt's 18v stuff comes out on top in almost every test i've ever seen in terms of battery longevity, torque and speed of getting the job done.

The 18v cordless eats through joists for fun.

So i went out and bought a load - i think £800 for a multi tool, cordless, plane, circ saw, light, jigsaw and two solid carry boxes, plus charger and 3 batteries.

The cordless is a bit weighty but the power on it is incredible. One of those where if you go to take a bit out and accidentally have it the wrong direction it will take your skin off.

 

[nicebutdim]

My personal opinion:

I used to be full Makita but the quality nowadays is absolute garbage and i'd never use them again. Batteries are crap, build quality sucks.

I had a bunch of blue Bosch 110v stuff and that was meh.

Tried Ryobi and they are like toy town tools, absolute garbage.

Once i'd had enough of crap tools i watched a load of tool reviews online and for battery stuff, DeWalt's 18v stuff comes out on top in almost every test i've ever seen in terms of battery longevity, torque and speed of getting the job done.

The 18v cordless eats through joists for fun.

So i went out and bought a load - i think £800 for a multi tool, cordless, plane, circ saw, light, jigsaw and two solid carry boxes, plus charger and 3 batteries.

The cordless is a bit weighty but the power on it is incredible. One of those where if you go to take a bit out and accidentally have it the wrong direction it will take your skin off.

Big problem with Makita is the range of tools they produce and the issue exists with other manufacturers, albeit to a lesser degree.

Take combi drills as an example: you can buy an extraordinary number of Makita combis, from an ever changing range, that runs from junk up to very capable tools, but people (not unreasonably) expect high performance from a big brand name. At one end of their range you get the DHP453 (not a bad drill for occasional light work, but won't last long in the hands of a tradesman), while at the other end is the exceptionally capable DHP486. A lot of people don't make any distinction between a £40 drill body and one that is closer to £200. It's the same with Dewalt, although their range hasn't been quite so extensive and confusing. Makita provide a 3 year warranty, which gives some level of reassurance.

I find Makita batteries to be very reliable, but they've been left behind in terms of capacity and output. Where significant power is required, they have two options: twin battery (works well) or 40V (different platform). Not sure what Makita will do to catch up, but if it involves a different battery platform there's a good chance I'd take my business elsewhere as tools wear out.

Who makes the best tools? There isn't a simple answer, but from the big names I'd say Milwaukee are probably taking the best route in terms of protecting their reputation, having more or less abandoned the bottom end of the market. While Makita and Dewalt continue to service the DIY market with cheap tools, people are going to question the quality of their products.

The above intentionally omits Bosch Professional as I don't know enough about their current tools - in the past they've produced many excellent products, but also some total junk.

 

[Electrics]

Big problem with Makita is the range of tools they produce and the issue exists with other manufacturers, albeit to a lesser degree.

Take combi drills as an example: you can buy an extraordinary number of Makita combis, from an ever changing range, that runs from junk up to very capable tools, but people (not unreasonably) expect high performance from a big brand name. At one end of their range you get the DHP453 (not a bad drill for occasional light work, but won't last long in the hands of a tradesman), while at the other end is the exceptionally capable DHP486. A lot of people don't make any distinction between a £40 drill body and one that is closer to £200. It's the same with Dewalt, although their range hasn't been quite so extensive and confusing. Makita provide a 3 year warranty, which gives some level of reassurance.

I find Makita batteries to be very reliable, but they've been left behind in terms of capacity and output. Where significant power is required, they have two options: twin battery (works well) or 40V (different platform). Not sure what Makita will do to catch up, but if it involves a different battery platform there's a good chance I'd take my business elsewhere as tools wear out.

Who makes the best tools? There isn't a simple answer, but from the big names I'd say Milwaukee are probably taking the best route in terms of protecting their reputation, having more or less abandoned the bottom end of the market. While Makita and Dewalt continue to service the DIY market with cheap tools, people are going to question the quality of their products.

The above intentionally omits Bosch Professional as I don't know enough about their current tools - in the past they've produced many excellent products, but also some total junk.

Don't get me started on the way they number power tools. Unnecessarily confusing and very very hard to compare against each other. Instead of the DWLX455504 being the 4ah and the DWLX455505 being the 5ah and the DWLX455505X being the 5ah with separate battery etc why don't they just give them a name, and then do different versions. 'This is the DeWalt 5 Range. It's the most professional of all our tools. It offers three drills - the 5.0ah 18v, the 4.0ah 18v and the 2.0ah 12v.'

My last set of 18v Makita stuff (top of the line stuff from 2016, can't remember what number/name it had but was most expensive) was absolutely garbage and cost me nearly £400 for the drill+impact driver set. The chuck broke for no explainable reason one day, so it stopped gripping bits properly, so bits always flew out. The entire chuck body then became loose and wobbled about all over the place. The batteries were awesome for the first 6 months and then the charge would only last a few hours doing lighter work light putting up stud wall or drilling out joists. It struggled to drive bigger screws home especially into harder wood.

The impact driver was decent but with crap batteries it made it a pain to use.

In all video'd tests i've seen, DeWalt is the clear winner in almost every category. The problem is, how do you ever know you're getting the top end of the range when it's so confusing and you can buy the 18v drill in about 15 different varieties.

Never used Milwaukee but my brother in law does (carpenter) and says they're garbage but he's in NZ so not sure if they have a different line out there, he moved onto AEG.

 

[Timbo]

Milwaukee all day, every day. Got the M18 CHPX SDS, used, abused, still going strong. Does 117mm core holes.

 

[pirate]

I have recently used Ridgid and they are built to last forever. Not so commonly available though. My DeWalt stuff seems tough enough, but I'm not using it every day.